This invention relates to a process for producing a photographic quality likeness of a photographic image on the surface of a chocolate candy.
Images are typically created in castable materials by simply casting the material against a mold surface having a pattern cut or otherwise formed therein. The mold pattern is a reversal of the desired image to be reproduced. The quality of the final image is to a large extent dependent upon the amount of detail that is contained in the mold pattern. High quality molds require a good deal of fine detail and are very expensive to construct. Because of the mold costs involved, these quality molds are typically used in the manufacture of high priced items, or those that can be mass produced and sold on a high volume basis.
In the case of molded candies or wax figures of the type traditionally sold on holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, where the items are both inexpensive and consumable, the cost of a high quality mold cannot ordinarily be justified unless a very large sales volume of a specific item is anticipated, such as plastic molded items, certainly not "customized" items of the type involving photos, etc. Inferior molds are therefore generally used in fabricating low priced items or limited quantity times and, as a consequence, the image recorded upon the final support material lacks detail and is relatively poor. Manufacturers of candies and the like sometimes place the company name or logo in the product using a die or some other device capable of producing a line art replication of the design. These processes, however, are incapable of recording what might be termed photographic quality images on the castable material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,658 issued to Sandra Katzman, et al. on Apr. 29, 1980 discloses a method for making candy (hereinafter "the Katzman patent"). The Katzman patent is intended to make novelty chocolate items but simply is not up to the task of making chocolate having a photographic likeness image formed thereon which can be "developed" at will be a person.
In the Katzman patent, a continuous tone photograph of the type that would be obtained with a regular hand-held camera is first attained. The next step in the Katzman patent is to convert the photographic print into a line art drawing. This requires the services of a skilled artist and the final result is limited by both artistic subjectivity and budget. A typical charge to convert a photographic portrait of a person to a line art drawing of the type contemplated by the Katzman patent would be in the area of $100 to $150, depending upon the skill of the artist and the quality of the work. This, of course, could vary depending on many factors. Without the conversion of the photographic print into a drawing of line art work, the Katzman process comes to a total halt. A sample mold including line art work according to the Katzman process would cost approximately $500 to $1,000.
Furthermore, with the Katzman patent it is impossible to get an image that can be "developed" by applying an edible "developer" to the chocolate product which enables a person, upon application of the developer, to see the image which was previously not visible. In the Katzman patent, the chocolate simply does not produce an image having photographic likeness.
For all of these reasons, the Katzman patent is of limited utility and commercially undesirable in forming photographic likeness images on chocolate products.